March 27, 2013

Phillies Roster Projections, 3/27

Let this sink in for a moment- tomorrow is the last Grapefruit League game, and on Friday the Phillies will be in Philadelphia.

Ok, enough of that. Yesterday I put out a set of roster predictions for every team that will break camp and start next week. Literally nothing has changed with the big league Phillies, so I will simply quote myself on the roster:

There is nothing different today, and the total roster positions open is still probably down to about 3. You have the Stutes-Aumont battle, the Lerud-Quintero battle, and the Inciarte-Orr battle, while there is also the question of who plays left field on Opening Day.

The drama is shifting to the minors, where there are lots of battles still ongoing. The IronPigs won yesterday's game to break a losing streak, and they'll break camp on Saturday. On Tuesday they'll host the Reading Fightin' Phils in an exhibition game, then they open Thursday. They're also going to have a cool urinal game system. I digress though. Their rotation appears to be nearly set too, according to the front office, which along with their workout groups, pretty much sets this team as nearly done.

With the rotation fairly set, the question is how the Phillies will stash Bass, Cochran, and Hyatt. I think they'll DL one of Bass and Cochran, stick the other in the bullpen, and send Hyatt to Reading. Leandro Castro is also a big issue here, as he probably will get sent down too if the Pigs don't DL Tolbert. Hernandez played yesterday, so he will not get DL'ed. Andres Blanco is totally inactive, so expect him to be DL'ed.

Jiwan James is out until July, which makes the Castro move easier here. That staff has talent, which will be interesting to watch, and the bullpen should be fun at the back-end too. The offense will be the question mark. Colvin making this team does cause down the line changes too.